Tale of Haruki the Brave
by Joker8heart
Summary: Koizumi tells a story during one of their sleep over. Edited, the original post had too many typo and grammatical errors


"It might not be of the horror genre but I think you will enjoy my story. What I am about to tell you is a tale about the story of Haruki the... "

"what ... what is this?" Kyon interrupted with a grim look towards Itsuki Koizumi who was holding a flash light under his face signifying his turn to tell a story to the group.

"it's my turn to tell a story, right?"Koizumi replied.

It was very late in the evening in a certain club room in North High. Formerly the Literature club, the club room is now occupied by the SOS Brigade who , now, made use of the room as their venue for their little illegal sleep over. The windows are covered by a thick and heavy cloth, courtesy of Haruhi, so that their lamps and nightlights can't be seen from the outside. It was , however, unnecessary because of Nagato Yuki who manipulated the space around the room so that they wouldn't be disturbed.

The two long Tables have been moved outside so that there is an open space in the middle area. Cards, board games and magazines are scattered around from their previous activities and Koizumi's telescope was neatly placed at the sides.

Three sleeping bags have been put out for the girls. The guys were to sleep next door, in the computer club. They were able to enter the room through Yuki's connection. Yuki wanted to sleep in the other room as well, to the surprise of Haruhi and the others, but Haruhi convinced her to sleep in their clubroom instead. Yuki nodded towards Kyon, Kyon somehow interpreted that simple gesture as Yuki telling him not to mess around the room.

The SOS Brigade are sitting around a lamp at the foot of the three sleeping bags. The girls are already sitting at their respective sleeping bags while Kyon and Koizumi are both sitting on the floor without any padding.

Kyon stared at Koizumi, waiting for a sign that Koizumi has understood why he stopped him. after a few second of Koizumi smiling and seemingly unable to get the message, Kyon sighed and moved close enough to koizumi so that they can whisper to each other.

"'Haruki'? seriously? you just took Haruhi's name and made it masculine! aren't you worried that this may cause certain things to happen to a certain impressionable someone?"

"Don't worry, as long as ... "

"Hey Kyon, what's the problem this time?" Haruhi injected. Her voice has a hint of drowsiness and seem louder than usual due to the lateness of the night. Due to the lack of enthusiasm, Kyon thought that Haruhi may not heard Koizumi's little opening. There is still time to stop this craziness.

"Suzumiya-san, can I please remove my gloves and hood?" Mikuru asked while still hugging Haruhi due to previous stories being too "scary".

Haruhi is wearing a normal blue colored pajama while Mikuru Asahina, the mascot of the brigade, was wearing a full body panda onesies sleeping pajama complete with hood and gloves. Haruhi bought it especially for Mikuru. Kyon , HOPES its a full body onesies sleeping pajama that has a panda theme. Kyon , who was excited to see what attire Mikuru was going to bring, was disappointed because it isn't as cute as you might think. Sure the panda pajama and Mikuru are cute individually but together they seem to not to fit together. you see, the panda pajama isn't a tight fit kind of apparel so that the wearer can sleep comfortably, due to the nature of Mikuru's bust size, Haruhi had to buy a bigger size set which meant that Mikuru now is like wearing a blanket which covered her entire figure. Mikuru finds the whole outfit adorable but she is uncomfortable sleeping with the gloves and hood on.

"..." Kyon pulled his attention from Haruhi to Yuki. Yuki's attire was an ordinary pajama , much like Haruhi's but with a gray color scheme. She is staring intently at Mikuru's outfit. Kyon took notice and made a mental note to ask Yuki if she would also like one, maybe a Pokémon theme perhaps.

" I suppose, only if ... " Kyon wasn't able to hear the rest of the conversation because of Koizumi.

"Just trust me" koizumi whispered back to Kyon and who then gave him a wide smile. Kyon sighed and sat properly again while crossing his arm. He is both interested and terrified on how this is going to turn up.

"If there are no more interruptions." Haruhi gave Kyon a quick, albeit a little bit annoyed, glance to which Kyon answered with a sigh. "Please continue with your story, Koizumi."

"Thank you, Suzumiya-san" Koizumi gave Kyon another smile before facing the group. "Might I first inform you that even though the names of people and events of the story may be similar in real life, it is purely just coincidence. It's a story I have heard when I was young. it's a story about a boy who grew up to be a very amazing man."

"Oy oy is that it? A disclaimer?" Kyon face palmed while remembering their certain film.

Haruhi had her arms crossed and solemnly nodded her head like she has a deep understanding of the subject.

Mikuru put a finger on her chin and tilted her head in confusion. She already removed her hoodie and gloves, placing them on her lap.

Yuki's expression stayed the same. Unreadable.

After observing everyone's reaction, koizumi smiled and continued with his story.

Once upon a time there exists a kingdom. In this kingdom there lived a young boy named Haruki ...

_Haruhi let out a silent gasp and grab hold of Kyon's shirt. She was wearing a very broad smile._

... One day Haruki was playing with his friends when they saw a giant tree. Without even thinking, Haruki climb to the tallest point. He stayed up there even though his friends are begging him to come down. It wasn't until he heard a familiar voice that he began to climb down. When he finally reached the ground he was immediately hugged by his father who was eagerly waiting for him.

He was surprised at the state of his father. His eyes was very wide and teary, his body felt cold to the touch and his body was shivering. Haruki didn't understand why his father was so afraid; climbing the big tree was not a big deal. He looked around and saw his friends were sighing with relief.

What is this? Why are they looked so relieved and happy that I climb down a tree? Haruki thought to himself.

When they got home, he asked his father this and was surprised by the answer. His father was afraid, his father experienced fear. Haruki failed to understand the idea of fear and being scared, of how one person could be so terrified of anything to the point of being shaken.

Having concluding the whole idea and whole concept to be meaningless, he vowed to eradicate the very being of the word "fear" within himself and the result is that he became fearless.

Years passed and Haruki , true to his word, grew up to be unafraid of anything. He was labeled as Haruki the very brave due to his lack of fear.

Haruki's father was very proud of how his son came to be but was worried of how Haruki scuffed and ignore the importance of the emotion of fear. He wished for his son to know the value of fear so he sent Haruki to a journey to discover what fear is. Haruki readily accepted the quest because he, too, was eager to test what his fear could be.

After a few weeks of traveling Haruki was able to arrive at a village. Haruki would usually pass villages like this but what he saw made him changed his mind. He fell in love with the village leader's daughter. The village leader was at first adamant but Haruki's persistence broke through to him. He would grant Haruki the Hand of his daughter, IF he passes his test.

"_Wait. Does the daughter have a say in this?" Kyon asked Itsuki_

"_The daughter's name is Kyonko" Koizumi replied with a smile "and I'm sorry, I'm just retelling the story. Maybe she was attracted to Haruki in the first place? Though , yes, kyonko's voice about the agreement was not heard, it is a bit unsettling but do, however, take note that this story was created long ago. Maybe such detail was lost due to passage of time or maybe the author has no interest on putting such detail in his story. The creation of a story is very interesting isn't it? It somehow reflect a person's personal view and ones culture in time."_

" '_Kyonko' … " Kyon sighed "j-just get on with it"_

At top of the hill near the village, there stood an old but very large house. For the longest time the house was said to be cursed by the most terrible horror. Anyone would not be able to stay there for very long because of this. The only way to dispel the curse is for someone who was very brave to stay inside the house for 5 nights.

Haruki was delighted with this and eagerly accepted; maybe this would show him what fear is.

And so, Haruki was sent to the house. The building was very old, shattered windows, broken doors and the roof was full of holes. The front yard was full of unmarked grave stones and discarded items such as shovels, pick axes and even article of old clothing. Inside was no less creepy Animal bones litter the hallway and spider webs can be found in every nook and cranny, the furniture are in disrepair, dust was everywhere; It looked like a haunted house in today's term.

Haruki only yawned and pitied the house in such a poor state, he was not impressed. Kicking the bones sideways, he tried to fix the house as much as he can because he will be staying there for some time. He arrived at morning and finished about night time he was very tired but he now deemed the house barely livable.

The reports on what is actually happening in the house is blurry, those who attempted to stay gave different version of what was happening inside the house. Loud noises, ghostly apparition, the house shaking, loss of senses and many more was said but one thing was clear, it gets worse and worse as the days passed. The longest previous attempt only lasted for 3 days before the visitor finally broke and came running outside the house crying.

Haruki settled down in the master bedroom, thinking and waiting what would happen. He wished what was going to happen should happen quickly because he was very excited.

The following day came and he was disappointed. Nothing happened to him during the night. He sluggishly walked towards the kitchen but was surprised at what he saw. The house reverted back to the same state before he cleaned it. He looked back to his bed room and was again surprised that it was no longer at the same state when he slept on.

At this point, most visitors in the house would be unnerved but Haruki just Grumbled and said "I have to clean this place up again?" before making his way towards the kitchen while pushing animal bones aside in the hallway.

It was night time again when Haruki finished cleaning, he kept repeating to himself or maybe to the house, how disappointed he is in the "horrifyingness" of all this. Cleaning isn't really one of Haruki's strong points but it is far from what he feared.

Haruki slept in the, once again, Clean bedroom

In the middle of the night, Haruki heard a very loud screams but he wasn't able to tell where it was coming from. Haruki stood up and waited if it would happen again. Another scream came and another, one after the other the screams came like raindrops during a storm. The voices were an amalgam of female, male and child voices and were coming from every direction.

"So this is the first trial of this house." He did not count a messy house as a trial.

Having concluded that the voices were not human in nature, Haruki climb back to bed and settled down. Even though he was being bombarded by these loud screams which showed no signs of stopping, Haruki just yawned, closed his eyes and said good night before drifting back to sleep.

"That was a nice nap" He told himself "The first trial was a nice surprise as well"

When went out of the bedroom he was again surprised that the house reverted back to the state before he cleaned it up. Feeling more angry than terrified, Haruki ,this time, didn't clean the entire house rather, just the areas he was using frequently such as the kitchen and bathroom.

On the third night he experienced losing his senses. At first it was his ability to smell and taste, he didn't realize when he lost ability to taste but he noticed this when he lost his ability to smell. The second sense to be lost was touch; he can no longer feel the bed sheet or even the clothes against his skin. The third was hearing. Everything was very quiet and can't hear anything, at this point most of the guests would start running away but for Haruki he thought this was the best opportunity to experience the most wonderful sleep. The kind of sleep where you have pure peace and quiet. He shut his eyes, fully aware that he would lose his sight soon and fell into a deep slumber.

When he woke up he discovered that the house was still the same since yesterday so he decided to clean it up again, hoping that it wouldn't revert back.

Night time came and Haruki again prepare for bed, eager to find out what the next trial would be however Haruki didn't experience anything strange but he fel uncomfortable. He kept feeling that he was being watch, a feeling that was not present a few nights ago.

Throughout the day he still can't shake the feeling of being watched. He would see shadows in the corner in of his eyes, items moving from place to place and strange noises with no distinct direction of origin this would went on all day.

During the fifth night, the last night, Haruki was awakened by the sound of soft cries. He sat-up and saw a girl in the corner of the room crying. She looked like a small girl with torn up clothes. She was dirty and wet with red eyes like she was crying. She was looking directly at Haruki.

Haruki jump out the bed and ran out of the room.

The child started to cry harder and walk towards the bedroom door. Before she can reach the door way, the man appeared in front of her and was holding something in his hands. The child became frightened when he suddenly grabbed her. She shut her eyes expecting something to hit her. But instead was pleasantly surprised when something soft was rubbing her cheeks. When she opened her eyes she found the young man was on his knees wiping her face with a soft towel.

"My goodness" The man spoke to her "what happened to you?"

She didn't answer and just let the man wipe her face.

"Are you the one who was following me all day?"

Again she didn't answer.

After he was done wiping her down, he looked at her and smiled. It filled her with a warm feeling. He took something from his back and showed it to her. It was a couple of fresh clothing.

"Do you want to get changed?" he asked her. The girl at first didn't move or say anything but after a couple of seconds passed the girl finally nodded and took the clothes from his hands. Before Haruki could stand and leave the room for her to change, the girl ran past him and out of the hall way.

Haruki smiled and waited a couple of minutes for the girl to come back but she did not. Haruki wanted to go outside the bedroom and look for the girl but the moment he stood up the room and everything around him started to change shape. He stumbled back and looked around. What once was the door leading to the hallway from the bedroom became the front door leading to the outside. Does that mean when he rushed out the room to get towels and clothes he actually left the house instead?

He heard footsteps behind him. When he turned he saw the girl wearing one of the clothes that he gave her. She looked at him and then smiled, before he could say anything he suddenly woke up. He sat up and looked around, it was morning and the feeling of being watched was gone. He looked at his side and saw one of the clothes that he gave to the girl was lying beside him.

As he was walking around the house gathering his things and cleaning up the house as much as he can, he can feel someone watching him again but this time it was a warm and welcoming feeling. Something was still bothering him; he still wondered if he actually finished his five night straight stay, did he leave the house last night?

After he deemed that everything he needed to do was done, he packed his stuff and started to walk out the house before he was able to leave he heard a voice.

"Thank you and thank you for taking care of the house"

He took it as a sign that the girl was at peace and the curse was lifted.

"And that's the story of Haruki and how he dispelled an evil curse" Koizumi finished the story by turning off the flash light under his face. "What do you guys think?"

2D characters, Full of plot holes, was poorly written and I think you just got bored half way through. Kyon thought to himself.

Yuki acted like a pillar. She was supporting both Haruhi's and Mikuru's head while they were sleeping.

Koizumi sighed, he seemed disappointed that they weren't able to hear the ending of his story.

"Well, I guess it's time for bed"

Koizumi and Kyon, with the watchful eyes of Yuki, Helped the two girls to their proper sleeping position. After that, they stretched and started to walk out the room and towards the computer room where they will be sleeping. When they closed the door behind them they heard it lock.

"Suzumiya-san probably ordered Yuki to lock the room if she fell asleep."

"Ahh I left my manga's in there." Kyon lightly tap the door

" … "

"Yuki are you still there? Can you open the door? I need to get something"

"Permission denied" Yuki replied through the door

He was about to knock again when Koizumi caught his hand.

"we shouldn't make too much noise. I don't want to disturb Suzumiya-san's sleep" Koizumi told him. "In the event that Suzumiya-san do wake up, this night will only get longer"

"Fine. Fine." Kyon sighed and pulled his hand away from Koizumi's grasp and started to walk towards the club room next to theirs.

"If you want, we can talk more" Koizumi offered while they are lying down their sleeping bag.

Kyon didn't reply.

Kyon and Koizumi both stared at the ceiling, which were plastered by glow in the dark stickers of certain anime characters with a bit of stars and planets.

"Haruki didn't find what he was looking for." Kyon suddenly spoke.

"hmm?"

"Haruki originally set out on an adventure to find something that he truly fears right? Such a crappy story should at least have an ending"

"Ah yes I forgot this last part" Koizumi said, cheerfully his voice still doesn't have a hint of drowsiness

After the event in the old house, he returned to the village leader. The village leader was delighted that the evil spirit was driven away. Haruki didn't believe that the spirit was evil, so much so that he requested that he and his bride would live in that house.

"I still don't see the ending"

Koizumi smiled and continued

Years went by and Haruki and his bride had a young wonderful boy. One day Haruki was resting inside their house when a young neighbor girl suddenly ran up to him screaming that his son climb a very tall tree. Haruki rushed outside and ran as fast as he can. He didn't need to look very far because he can see his son on one of the tallest tree in the village. once he reached the tree he called out his son to come down. His son slowly climbed down but every steps his son takes, he loses his breath.

When his son was finally safe in his arms his eye were wide, his body felt cold and he was shivering. The children and onlookers who came to watch were breathing a sigh of relief but his was the deepest. on that day, Haruki discovered true fear.

Kyon took a deep breath and exhaled loudly.

"Well that was a crappy ending too" Kyon said while turning to his side

"Maybe so, but I find the whole thing kind of poetic" Koizumi replied with a smile the Kyon can't see.

with that they drifted off to sleep.

**END**

Hey guys, Thank you for reading.

I wanted to retell a story I heard when i was very young, I don't remember the title or the original name of the main protagonist or even the sequence of events. I just write I remember and filled up the holes as best that I can.

I want to improve so positive and negative criticism are welcome. :)


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